Artist Meetups Sydney

Painting Creative Art Experience

**Painting Creative Art Experience** Join us for a fun and relaxing in-person workshop where you'll explore the power of painting to unlock your creativity and promote healing. No experience needed—just bring your open mind and let your imagination flow! Step into a calm, welcoming space where you can slow down, breathe, and reconnect with yourself through colour and creative expression. This is a gentle, guided painting experience designed to support emotional release, relaxation, and creative flow—no art experience needed. You don’t need to be “good at art.” You just need to come as you are. Through intuitive painting and reflective creative exercises, you’ll be invited to explore your inner world in a safe and supportive environment. This is a space to let go of pressure, quiet the mind, and reconnect with your natural creativity. Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed, creatively blocked, or simply needing time to rest and reset, this workshop offers a pause from everyday life and a return to yourself. You’ll be gently guided by **Louisa Chan**, an artist and art therapist who integrates creativity, emotional wellbeing, and healing practices into her work. Expect a relaxed, nurturing atmosphere, soft guidance, and a sense of freedom to express what words often cannot. **In this workshop you will:** * Explore painting as a tool for emotional expression and release * Experience a calm, supportive creative space * Reconnect with your imagination and inner world * Let go of perfection and create freely * Leave feeling more grounded, lighter, and creatively refreshed No experience needed. All materials are provided. Come as you are—leave with colour, calm, and something meaningful you created from within.

Windows & Vistas: A New Perspective

**Windows & Vistas: A New Perspective** **A Creative Afternoon of Art, Reflection & Connection** **Slow down. Create something beautiful. See from a new perspective.** There is something beautiful about pausing at a window — taking in the light, the landscape and the view beyond. Join us for a relaxing and inspiring Creative Wellbeing Workshop where you’ll explore the beauty and symbolism of **windows, light and vistas** through art-making and gentle reflection. You’ll be guided to create your own window and vista-inspired artwork while exploring themes of **perspective, hope, possibility and new beginnings**. Like a window opening onto a wider landscape, this workshop offers a space to pause, enjoy the creative process and reflect on the perspectives, possibilities and hopes that are part of your own journey. ✨ **You'll experience:** 🪟 **Gentle guided reflection** inspired by windows, light and new perspectives 🎨 **Step-by-step instruction** to create your own window and vista-inspired artwork 🤍 **A peaceful and welcoming environment** where you can slow down and enjoy being creative 🌿 **Simple creative wellbeing practices** to support relaxation, mindfulness and self-reflection ✨ **An opportunity to explore** perspective, hope and possibility through creativity 🖼️ **A beautiful artwork to take home** as a meaningful reminder of your creative experience **No artistic experience necessary — just bring yourself and enjoy an afternoon of creativity.** 📅 **Tuesday, 22 September 2026** 🕒 **3:00 – 5:00 pm** 📍 **Club Ryde** 💰 **$65 per person** *(All art materials included)* ***“Sometimes a change in perspective allows us to appreciate the beauty of the view before us.”***

Create beautiful visual artwork

You will be introduced to basic pouring techniques and art-theory. Followed by a demonstration of pouring paint. You get to create your own painting on a 15×20cm canvas. We then discuss how you found the experience and what you will like to try out perhaps for next time. Please note paintings usually take 3 to 4 days to copleately dry, the varnish can be applied to finish them after that to complete the artwork. If you would like to take them home on the day, please bring a tray or cardboard for ease of transportation. Wearing old clothes and sneakers to the workshop are recomended (just in case of paint spilling). Before the workshop You may like to google flow art techiques on utube, for Ideas of techniques you may like to try. Just come along and enjoy the experience and the fun in flow art.

WINTERGARDEN

Coffee & Collage | The Grounds

#### Coffee & Collage @ The Grounds is a energetic 1-hour self-guided analogue collage experience designed to help you stay off screens, reconnect with your creativity and enjoy some time away from the digital world. **$30 - All materials included** **[Book your spot](https://www.theinspiredwithin.com/shop/p/coffee-collage-thegrounds)** You’ll create in the most instagrammable café in Sydney and spend the session cutting, layering and creating while sipping your favourite brew. The session will be hosted at The Grounds Cafe (indoor area). Please look for the Coffee & Collage sign. **A note about the venue:** The Grounds is a busy café, so expect background chatter and the general buzz of a lively venue. Only 8 spots.

Coffee & Collage

#### **Coffee & Collage is a relaxed 1.5-hour self-guided analogue collage experience designed to help you slow down, reconnect with your creativity and enjoy some time away from the digital world.** **[Book your spot](https://www.theinspiredwithin.com/shop/p/coffee-collage)** Surrounded by vintage chairs, shelves of second-hand books and the warm atmosphere Ampersand Cafe & Bookstore is known for, the session is designed to get your creative flow happening, without rules. Intentionally small so you can feel comfortable coming on your own, meet new people and simply enjoy being present. Only 6 spots per session. $25 - All materials included

On the Degradation of Art and the Public Conscience

**On the Degradation of Art and the Public Conscience** **A philosophical talk by YouTuber, artist and budding science fiction writer Nikola Pavkovic** **What does a civilisation reveal about itself through the art it creates?** Art is not merely decoration. It is an expression of values: of what we consider beautiful or ugly, heroic or contemptible, worthy of admiration or deserving of ridicule. Every culture produces art in its own image and, in doing so, reveals something about its conception of man. This talk will examine the proposition that the degradation of modern art is not an isolated aesthetic phenomenon but the reflection of a deeper degradation in the public conscience. What happens when beauty becomes embarrassing, greatness becomes suspect and sincerity gives way to irony? When the artist ceases to present a vision of what man might become and instead celebrates fragmentation, ugliness, nihilism or despair? We will explore the relationship between **philosophy, art, morality and politics**, tracing the historical forces that have transformed our artistic culture and asking whether the decline of artistic standards has accompanied a corresponding decline in our moral ones. We’ll consider the capture of artistry not merely within universities and cultural institutions but across the wider machinery through which art is produced, funded, judged and celebrated. Yet decline is never total. There are artists who refuse it. By examining these exceptions, we can ask what their survival tells us about the possibility of another artistic culture: one concerned again with beauty, achievement, seriousness and the elevation rather than diminution of the human spirit. Finally, we will confront the most important question: **If you reject the culture being offered to you, what are you prepared to create in its place?** Presentation followed by open discussion, disagreement and debate. **On the second Monday of the month, Philo Agora has a speaker on a philosophical topic and a Q&A and discussion after. On the fourth Monday we meet again for open philosophical discussion.** Philo Agora's format is a talk for 20 minutes starting at 7:15 for 7:30. The presenter then answers any questions of clarification from the floor. We then take a break of 5 minutes for more coffee and to mull over the talk and discuss it within small groups. The microphone is then passed around the audience for comment, opinion, and often counter argument to a maximum of 3 minutes. The presenter is then given a 5 minute right of reply. We usually finish up at 9pm. The cover charge is $5 for the talk. There are tea and coffee facilities available in-house. Sam Alexander - Convener (0457 749 310)

Su/Real - Analogue Collage Workshop

#### Learn the foundations of surreal collage art, slow down off screens, through a guided experience, a welcoming space, and time to simply be. In this guided and immersive workshop, led by the mixed media collage artist and art director Sue Morais, you’ll have an unique opportunity to explore the world of surreal collage art and learn to find hidden narratives, learning clever and unique collage art composition techniques. As part of the experience, you’ll gain access to a premium, curated library of vintage magazines & books and recycled creative cuts. **All materials included + nibbles** $69 per seat 2 hours

ST THOMAS REST PARK CROWS NEST/CAMMERAY

CERAMIC FRUITS NSWAG

Lara Meacock/Edgar Anzaldua

Our CCX Sydney September event features two awesome designers and speakers: Lara Meacock from CBA on a AI themed Systems designing back and Edgar Anzaldua Moreno from Compare Club on the complimentary talk You loved your Craft, Now you prompt. Will be applying a $10.00 cover charge to cover Food and drinks and on this occasion will be kindly hosted again by our new friends at Lorikeet. Details below on the venue location (Surry Hills) **IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THIS SESSION!** **An Important detail is that due to gaining entry to Lorikeet we will need any CCX Member planning to attend this session to supply us with their First and Last name in advance of attending.** On this occasion we will not be able to accept Members who do not supply these details. Many thanks CCX Sydney. **About Lara's talk** **Systems designing back - when systems start thinking with us.** AI is rapidly changing how digital products are designed and built - but the most interesting shift isn’t simply that we can work faster. It’s what happens when the systems, rules and decisions designers create can increasingly be interpreted and executed by AI. In this talk, Lara explores the evolving relationship between design systems, AI and the role of the designer. Drawing on real-world experiments in AI-enabled design and delivery, she’ll look at what happens when design systems become more than libraries of components and start acting as the infrastructure AI uses to create. As execution becomes increasingly automated, the designer’s role begins to shift too - away from being the person producing every outcome, and towards defining the systems, constraints, judgement and quality standards that shape what gets produced. **About Lara** Lara Meacock is a Principal Product Designer at Commonwealth Bank, working across product design, systems and emerging AI-enabled ways of working. Across her career, she has worked at the intersection of product, design and technology, helping teams turn complex problems into digital experiences that are useful, intuitive and built to scale. Her practice combines a strong product lens with systems thinking, exploring how the decisions, patterns and foundations behind an experience can enable better outcomes for both customers and the teams building them. More recently, Lara has been exploring what generative AI means for the future of product design: how we design with it, how it changes the way products are created, and how the role of the designer evolves as the systems around us become increasingly capable. **About Edgar's talk** **You Loved Your Craft. Now You Prompt.** You picked design because you loved designing. Now you prompt. More comes back, faster, and it looks fine, so you ship it. Something about that mechanism feels off, and you can't name it. So you sit with that feeling. It isn't nostalgia. Let's talk about what it is. The uncomfortable part is that the better the output gets, the less often you scrutinise it. And something gets lost. Designers weren't the first ones to experience that loss, and we can learn from others. This talk is about how you keep using AI without losing what makes you good at design. It's about getting your mojo back. Ending with something you have that the machine doesn't, besides a heart. **About Edgar** Edgar Anzaldúa-Moreno is a design leader, researcher, and engineer with more than two decades of experience working across technology, product design, strategy, and organisational change. His career has spanned startups, consultancies, and large organisations, including leadership roles at KPMG, Canon, CarsGuide, Compare Club and Sweat. He describes his practice as that of a designgineer — combining research, strategy, design, and engineering to solve complex product and organisational problems. His work includes published research, a US patent, award-winning digital products, and the development of research-led design teams and practices. Edgar is currently exploring how artificial intelligence is changing the nature of design work and leadership. He is writing Leading Design after AI: From Operator to Orchestrator, a book about what happens when AI makes production increasingly cheap, while judgment, critical thinking, and the ability to frame the right problems become more valuable. Therefore don't miss out on this awesome pairing of two creativity and AI themed talks that will certainly asks as many questions of our audience as well as our presenters!

September Meetup for the Sydney Nature Journal Club

Come along to our **September meetup for the Sydney Nature Journal Club**. This is a chance to connect, spend some time in nature and journal together. I will offer some guidance to start. After we can share journal pages and ideas. **What to bring:** Bring along sketchbooks/paper and your favourite drawing materials (pens, pencils, watercolour, acrylic, anything you have). I will have extra materials on the day if you want to explore other mediums. \*\*Where:\*\* Coal loader cafe **Cost:** Suggested donation is $10 annual fee, $5 casual fee. (This helps cover Meetup fees). DISCLAIMER.
Please note that Katy as volunteer organiser of activities for Sydney Nature Journal Club is NOT responsible for the health or safety of members (or their guests) and therefore will not accept any liability for accidents or injuries or losses that may occur during Meetup events at any location. By attending a Sydney Nature Journal Club event members acknowledge that you accept ALL of the above. I look forward to seeing you there.